Pogačar Cracks Seixas on Roche-aux-Faucons After Early Liège Chaos

Liège-Bastogne-Liège exploded earlier than expected Sunday after Remco Evenepoel slipped into a dangerous split that put Tadej Pogačar and Paul Seixas onto the defensive barely an hour into the Belgian monument.

The Red Bull-Bora-Hansgrohe leader infiltrated a front group that swelled to roughly 50 riders after a nervous opening rolling south out of Liège.

The decisive moments happened before live TV came on, but the split appeared to happen after an early crash.

What happened next was not exactly clear, but pre-race favorites Pogačar and Seixas missed the split.

With only one UAE Emirates-XRG rider and no Decathlon CMA CGM riders in the break, those teams organized a chase as the gap ballooned to nearly 3 minutes on rolling roads toward Bastogne.

The break was stacked with big names even as some dropped out. Along with Evenepoel, Egan Bernal, Laurens De Plus, Magnus Cort, Andreas Leknessund, Dylan Van Baarle, Diego Ulissi, and Alan Hatherly, among others.

With more than 120km to go, the gap was trimmed to about under 2 minutes as the race turned north and toward the most decisive climbs of the final spring monument.

The move lost its mojo by the Côte de Stockeu, and the bunch roared toward the decisive moments at La Redoute with all the favorites together.

Seixas answered the hype to match Pogačar on La Redoute.

The elastic snapped on the Côte de la Roche-aux-Faucons, with Pogačar dropping the young French rider to go solo toward the line.